Bonds, US futures advance as debt-deal push ramps up

BLOOMBERG

Treasuries and US stock futures advanced on hopes that Congress will pass a debt accord to head off a default as White House and Republican congressional leaders stepped up lobbying in support of the deal.
Treasury yields fell across the curve. Yields on short-dated bills — the most at risk of a default — were indicated lower as they extended a decline from recent highs. Contracts on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 rose 0.5% and 1% respectively. Nvidia Corp advanced 3.1% in premarket trading after CEO Jensen Huang unveiled several AI-related
products and services
The clock is ticking as backers of the agreement have only a week to get it through Congress before a possible June 5 default — the so-called X Day. President Joe Biden has been personally calling lawmakers to support the bill, with a vote by the House likely on Wednesday, before it goes to the Senate. Even if the deal is approved, traders have to contend with risks including a probable Federal Reserve rate hike next month and a slowdown in China which sent a key stocks gauge into a bear market on Tuesday.
“Maybe the rally has a bit further to go but it’s more buy-on-rumour, sell-on-the-news,” said Cesar Perez Ruiz, chief investment officer of Pictet Wealth Management. “As from now, we will go back to looking at economy, inflation, plus the drain of liquidity as the Treasury General Account will need to be refilled.”
European stocks fluctuated. Nestle SA and Unilever Plc declined after both announced the appointment of new chief financial officers, underscoring a changing of the guard at consumer-goods companies as inflation pressures the industry. Euro-area government bonds got a boost from data showing inflation in Spain slowed more than expected in May.
The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index dropped as much as 1% on Tuesday, marking the fifth day of declines and taking its losses from a January 27 peak to about 20%. The HSCEI gauge and Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index are among the month’s worst performing major equity gauges, as a sluggish economic recovery, weakening yuan and tensions with the US leave traders with little reason to buy. The offshore yuan weakened past 7.1 per dollar for the first time since November.
Assuming Congress approves the debt deal, the Treasury Department may sell more than $1 trillion of bills through the end of the third quarter to bolster its cash balances, according to some estimates, depriving other markets of liquidity needed to maintain gains.
For Fed policymakers, details of the deal will be another consideration when they meet next month, with markets pricing in an increase of 25 basis points by July. The focus this week will be on US jobs data, with economists expecting the addition of 200,000 payrolls in May, down from average monthly growth of about 370,000 over the past year.
“The key point for us is that US growth will continue to slow, credit tightening will continue through the second half of the year,” Wayne Gordon, executive director of commodities and FX at UBS Global Wealth Management, said on Bloomberg TV. “It may indeed lead to the Fed starting to do a more obvious pivot, potentially even starting to cut rates by the end of the fourth quarter.”
Meanwhile, a rush of 12 banks and firms are tapping Europe’s primary bond market, seeking to get out ahead of a potential US debt-ceiling deal that may lead to a deluge of T-bill sales.

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